Hey there! We’re looking for your lesson plan tweaks that would help move two stodgy projects closer to inquiry. Submit your ideas, and you could see your name in an upcoming issue of School Library Monthly!

• Pet Research - How can you help move a teacher past a list of pet facts on a poster?  (This is the same scenario we discussed at AASL in Charlotte a few weeks ago.)
• Overly-Narrow Research Topics - The teacher proposes a research topic that is too narrow and too shallow. How can you take the learning deeper?

Please share your thoughts by Sunday, November 29.  Thanks (and please help spread the word!).

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As part of our work on the AASL Learning Standards and Guidelines Implementation Task Force (aka Learning4Life or L4L), many of us prepared presentations for the 2009 AASL conference that focused on how we can implement the L4L vision in our libraries.

I was to give a Webinar and a live presentation on small steps that can lead to big instructional design changes.  But alas, the Convention Center’s broadband rebelled, and the poor Web attendees had no images and no voice — just me maniacally typing my entire presentation into the chat window! The Webinar organized said they could podcast my live event, but alas, they were called away elsewhere.

So I recorded the session on my iPhone and synced it with the slides.  You can see it on Vimeo.  We had some amazing conversations about instructional design, working with traditional and/or difficult teachers, etc.

Enjoy!

Update 11/25/09: At Sharon’s request (see below), I’ve added the slides here. Having seen the faces of my exhausted grad students in class this week, I am reminded of what it feels like not even to have 45 minutes to watch something!

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Whew - is it just me, or do the turning of the leaves herald that whiplash season known as CONFERENCE SEASON??? I’m a bit behind on sharing about the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME) conference, the AASL conference, and the Sam Houston Book Festival, so the next few posts will catch me up!

At the Michigan Association for Media in Education October 21-23 at the Grand Traverse Resort, we were thrilled to host Christopher Harris and Ben Mikaelson as keynote speakers.

I was fortunate to get to present both alone and with colleagues:

• Nudging Toward Inquiry: Strategies for Moving Colleagues Toward Inquiry-Based Research - Building on the Stripling Inquiry Model, we looked at many small “tweaks” that can move instructional design closer to inquiry.
• Accidental Literacy: Centers in Elementary Libraries (with Phyllis Cornwall and Teresa Sensenig) - Phyllis, Teresa, and I, despite our different personalities and instructional approaches, have all found success incorporating centers-based activities in our libraries.  White board easels, writing centers, listening opportunities, computers, magnets, felt boards, puppets, and other old- and new-school tools help our students learn socially and build literacy skills.
• Leading with Learning4Life (with Kathleen McBroom) - As the state L4L coordinators, Kathleen and I used the six-word memoir approach to help folks get started with the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner documents on the local level.  Michigan has over 700 school districts, and while funding is delivered at the state level, staffing decisions are made at the local level.  Therefore, advocacy and promotion efforts can be most effective when they begin locally.
• Roundtable: Standards Q & A - This was an informal, low-key opportunity to chat with folks about how their implementation was going.  It was really thrilling to hear so many librarians talking about how to move their personal or district practice forward.

State conferences are a great chance to talk with practitioners and build local networks.  In the next post, I’ll summarize the national AASL conference!

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